Category: Korea

The most definitive data yet are available to answer the question as to whether the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement would increase American exports to South Korea. That, after all, is how the deal was sold by the Obama administration to fast-track it through Congress. And the answer, sadly, is no. Imports have risen, exports have declined and the trade deficit responsible for so many job losses keeps widening. According to Census data, the trade deficit with Seoul is nearly $16.6 billion compared with $13.1 billion in 2011.

The KORUS agreement went into force on March 15 of this year, so perhaps it’s too soon to tell. But since then, South Korean exports have surged while American exports have fallen. These managed-trade agreements always fail to live up to their promises. Last year, the United States had a $61.6 billion trade deficit with Mexico. In 1993, the Clinton administration said that NAFTA would create an additional 200,000 jobs here. But according to a 2011 report by the Economic Policy Institute, it had cost 693,000 American jobs.

This is highly relevant as the administration pushes for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a far-reaching trade agreement with eight other nations. While there will be winners and losers domestically, it will almost certainly fail to live up to the hype and the losers will be in the majority.

North Korea has been the crazy aunt in the attic of southeast Asia for so long that it’s easy to ignore its latest string of threats, which are now backed by nuclear weapons. After the Iraq debacle, a war sold on phony intel, it’s also easy to be skeptical of intelligence that shows the…